Mikado got a faraway look on his face and said, “I’m scared to even think about it but as soon as those two fleets join up in front of us I’m going to jump the forts in to the planet, have Smiths group fire two salvos of penetrators from behind them and then have the Ultras jump to our position and fire two salvos of penetrators while the Megas fire five salvos into the fleet facing us. We will all then jump in next to a Heavy and hit it up close with our main primary beams. Colson, have three jumps locked into each ship’s guidance so that they can multiple jump within that fleet next to three heavy battleships. I only want two seconds of time between each jump. After the third jump, have all ships jump to a location directly above their formations and fire all of our remaining penetrators. We will then jump to the planet and stay as long as possible to make sure the forts are up and running. Then we will jump out and go home to replenish our stores. Mr. Colson, will you send the orders to Commodore Smith along with the down loads for their selected targets.”
After receiving his orders, Chen looked up again and said to Smith, ‘Why can’t you launch a full volley of penetrators at each jump inside their fleet to increase the odds of more getting thru; plus, if they use their beams to hit the penetrators they will probably hit their own ships.”
Commodore Smith commed Mikado and offered Chens suggestion. Kelly and Mikado looked at the sensor officer relaying the message and then at each other. Mikado lifted his personal com and said, “Effective immediately, Lieutenant,” Mikado paused his recording and said, “Mr. Smith, what is Chen’s full name?”
“Tony Olivo Chen, sir.”
Mikado continued his recording, “Tony Olivo Chen is promoted to the rank of Captain and will be assigned a Megaship to command upon return to fleet headquarters.” Mikado stopped the recording and said, “Mr. Chen, this is a battlefield promotion that cannot be revoked. You will continue in your present position until the conclusion of this campaign and then await the assignment of your ship. Please issue the orders with your suggestions included.”
Chen rose to attention, saluted Commodore Smith who was smiling and said, “Thank you, sir.” The entire bridge crew cheered and Smith could see that Chen’s crew members respected the promotion. “Good,” he thought, “that supports my views of him. He’ll move fast in this navy.”
The SR fleet continued to follow the Algean fleet further in system firing penetrators and primaries as they advanced. The Algeans had lost 43,000 ships in the rescue fleet and another 20,000 that were originally in the system. The destruction was far from over.
The Algean Fleet Leader watched as his fleet was being mauled by the smaller ships but the plan was working. The Leaders will have to look at how we handle these strange ships in future conflicts. It was clear that they were more technologically advanced. The Fleet had depended on its size for too long and now it was paying the price of not continuing advances in weapon development. Those energy missiles the strangers were using were killing his fleet. We should have them in the position we want shortly,” It thought. “It won’t be long now.”
Colson looked up from his display and Mikado saw a look on his face that told him more than words. “Sir, another Algean fleet has just jumped in to the system and is moving our way.”
Mikado kept his voice steady and said, “How many ships Mr. Colson?”
“Five hundred thousand, Sir and more are still arriving.”
“How many of them are heavy battleships?”
“Three hundred thousand, Sir.”
“Mr. Colson, notify the forts to jump in to the planet, have Commodore Smith execute his orders and be prepared for his Ultras to arrive at our location”
Smith received his orders and raised his fleet com, “All ships, we will accelerate to flank speed and launch two salvos of penetrators into the Algean fleet. The Ultras will then jump to the Megas position and launch two more salvos. The Rising Sun will then press the signal that will jump all our ships simultaneously into the Algean fleet. You have two seconds between jumps to fire a salvo of penetrators and hit a heavy with you main primary beams. When we rejoin we will launch our remaining penetrators into the Algean fleet from above. The Empire Class ships will return to the planet after the first two salvos. On my command, execute!”
The eight thousand ships in Smith’s fleet accelerated at full speed and closed on the Algean fleet so fast that the Plants didn’t have time to return fire before the 3800 Ultra’s disappeared from their sensors and the Empires turned and fled toward the planet. The Plants sensors did record the eight huge constructs that suddenly appeared surrounding the planet. They even made their heavy battleships look small. Then they were fighting to avoid the three million plus penetrators coming at them from the rear.”
The Algean Fleet leader watched his display and suddenly stood up and yelled at his bridge crew, “Where did those ships go?”
His sensor leader said, “Leader, they jumped to the position of their big ships and all of them are launching those energy missiles at us.”
“That’s not possible. They are inside the band that prevents jumping.”
‘Look for yourself, Leader.”
The Fleet Leader looked at his display and he saw the 500 big ships had been joined by 4,000 ships from the first stranger’s fleet. He could see on his display the three million missiles coming at his ships from the rear and an additional six million from the front. Then suddenly all the strange ships in front of his fleet disappeared. That’s when he saw hundreds of his heavy ships exploding in his fleet and suddenly saw one of the strange ships alongside his flagship. The last thought the Fleet Leader had was, “We had them where they wanted us.”
The SR fleet came back together above the Algean fleet and emptied their magazines of penetrators. Another 800 ships had been lost moving thru the Plant fleet with 165 of them being Megaships. They learned that some of the Plant ships were programmed to fire an anti-matter missile if a ship other than an Algean got close. In the Megaships that were lost, they had the misfortune to be hit by an Anti-matter missile on their first jump which moved their screens into the red and a subsequent hit destroyed them. Ships that were hit later survived the hit. The SR fleet looked down on the Algean fleet and saw it being destroyed. Everywhere Plant ships were turning to avoid the penetrators and collisions between ships were numerous. “Execute jump to the planet,” Mikado ordered. Of the 128,000 ships sent against the SR fleet, only three small ships emerged and two of them were damaged. The Stars Realm fleet lost almost 2,000 ships.
The Algean Half Fleet Leader that had just arrived with his fleet of half a million ships watched on his display as the strange ships demolished the ships that had called him for support. It had been thousands of eight seasons since the Common had to call in more than the tenth fleet that had just been destroyed. His half fleet was involved in harvesting efforts on the other side of the galaxy when the request was received. The Home Leaders made the request so he had moved his fleet immediately; now he saw why. Those strange ships were capable of making null moves inside the limiting band that restricted their own null moves. He was of the opinion that it was impossible to make those moves that close to a star but now he had seen it done and knew his scientists were in error. This was going to call for an examination of their decisions and processes. His fleet had spread out at the limiting band and waited for the strange ships to try and run for safety when the fifth fleet attacked. Obviously, it should have been the fifth fleet running for safety. Of course that would never happen because the Common never ran from conflicts. The Fleet Leader had it cross his mind that sometimes it might be better if they would run but then he dismissed it from his mind. He sent his captured views of the destruction of the fifth fleet and what he could see of the huge constructs now circling the food source planet. The ships that had destroyed the fifth fleet were also at the planet apparently waiting for them to come to them. He held his fleet at the limiting band and awaited instructions from the Home Leaders. He wondered how he was going to attack ships that were faster and could go into null inside the limiting band.